Look! There is a thing!

.
Many of you may have already seen the backlash from LJ's latest stupid idea that blew up in their face -- posting a user's location in the comment headings, based on their IP address. Fortunately, the outraged storm of protest was large / heavy / smart enough that that feature has already been disabled. (I didn't even know about it till it was already history; maybe that was the day I spent in Lubbock, away from the computer.) As Rahaeli (another Synecdochic identity) said under the original LJ announcement, "Comment IP logging is a powerful anti-abuse tool. Publicly displaying geolocation data is creepy and intrusive. Please don't conflate the one with the other."

BUT!! Even though that feature is gone, it does not mean that our location can not be found, if someone is determined to do so. We 'expose' our location each time we post or comment on the internet, to anyone who has the smarts and desire to find it.

A full explanation of what IP logging is and does is explained in Synecdochic's post, as well as methods to increase your online anonymity if that's important to you. Syn spent many years as part of LJ's abuse/support team, and is one of the co-creators / developers of DW. She knows her stuff, and is able to explain it in simple terms and understandable ideas, even for the non-internet-savvy among us. *raises hand*

So, if you're at all curious or concerned, or if you have friends who are the same, head on over / point them toward Syn's post.

And I'm adding one more point in the DW-open-and-aboveboard column, a mental tally I keep about why I like DW. Since this is LJ's fuck-up, the DW team didn't have to weigh in at all. Instead, Syn (using her personal account, rather than her DW co-creator account) took a lot of time to explain the ins and outs of IP addresses so that we can all be more aware, and make more informed decisions about how we use the 'Net. That's just so much awesome, I feel the need to emote. \o/

.